Tech Team Day – Mt Hutt

The Tech Team training together early season. We are always improving too!

The NZSIA Technical Team is a group of 12 NZSIA trainers and examiners, selected in 2017 with the purpose of helping progress the technical framework of skiing in New Zealand. The team is responsible for travelling around to the many ski resorts in the country to educate and develop NZSIA certified ski instructors. The Tech Team has a mission to help all aspiring ski instructors within the NZSIA get the contact time to help develop their skills.

Mt Hutt early season with a snow base full to the brim and blue skies gracing our eyes. This was the scene for the first of many Tech Team days being put on free of charge by the NZSIA. Mt Hutt ski school has a very dedicated, hungry pool of ski instructors that are eager to keep progressing their understanding and proficiency of performance skiing.

This first day June 28th, saw a large number sign up and the day had be split into a morning and an afternoon session to ensure all 18 of them could attend and not leave the school high and dry. The first part of the session is an outline of what good skiing entails in a dynamic medium radius turn.

Tech Team member Josh demonstrating the desired outcome

Using the 3 turn phases, completion, initiation and control phase I outlined the A, B, C’s of high performance skiing. The tech team is confident that the A, B, C framework provides clarity of the sequence of events or movement patterns necessary to get accurate and enjoyable ski performance in a dynamic medium radius turn.

I took the participants through a breakdown of the ideal way to exit the old turn in a position (A) that allows you to create an accurate platform with the lower the body (B) which gives you the confidence and functionality to move the centre of gravity into the turn to maximise ski performance and enjoyment.

Breaking up the information into A, B and C segments allowed the movements to be practiced in isolation with specific skill drills and then once everyone had ample practice time and had been given feedback the whole sequence can be put together.

Each participant was videoed and had the chance to view their turns whilst getting clear feedback on their ability to link the phases together. As a trainer, the clarity of the movement patterns allows the feedback to be very specific and both trainer and participant can attribute the breakdown of performance to a specific phase and movement.

I had a great time stoking the fire of learning to ski better with these guys and gals. I asked them for feedback on how their day went and the message was clear, “If I understand what I need to be doing, I have confidence in my ability to get there”. As a Tech Team and Interski Team member this is exactly what our mission of these free development days hope to achieve.